Sustainable Urban Development
With cities expected to host about 70 percent of the world's population, sustainable urban development is key to making communities worldwide more resilient against the growing threat of climate change. Find out about the latest urban practices from across the world aiming to make our cities more sustainable and inclusive in these good-news stories from The Optimist Daily.
Tartu transformed its main street into a pedestrian paradise
From Oakland and Seattle to Bogota and York, cities around the world have been showcasing the community-building benefits that come with removing cars from the streets. In another display of car-free living, the Estonian city of Tartu transformed its main street into a pedestrian-friendly paradise Read More...
Park in Copenhagen is designed to stop rainwater from flooding the streets
Following a devastating dose of heavy rain in 2011 that cost Copenhagen $1 billion in damage, the Danish capital decided to begin investing in hundreds of climate-resilient projects that could mitigate the city’s vulnerability to flooding as a result of extreme rainstorms — which are only Read More...
New cement-free sewerage concrete prevents fatbergs and corrosion
The cement used to construct concrete sewerage systems around the world does a mighty job of helping wash away our waste but does have its shortcomings. Scientists in Australia have developed a new cement-free solution they say is better equipped to handle the corrosive nature of these Read More...
How AI and the video game Minecraft can help us design better cities
While artificial intelligence (AI) is nowhere near ready to tackle the complicated task of designing an actual city, it can assist city planners, especially when it comes to the quantitative aspects of urban planning. In order to improve the urban planning abilities of AI, programmers are turning Read More...
Berlin opens giant city-run department store for second-hand goods
City planners around the world should take note of an exciting new development taking place in the German capital of Berlin. As the city looks to cut down on waste, it has opened a state-run department store that sells items that might get thrown away otherwise. Located on the third floor of the Read More...
This building was made partially from its own construction waste
While we’ve seen architects use wasted materials to construct buildings, never have we seen a complex use its own construction waste to build parts of a building. But that’s exactly what’s happened in the North India city of Kishangarh, where an innovative industrial complex has created Read More...
Swedish town to turn former train track into a site for urban experiments
Looking to develop something meaningful out of an abandoned train track running through its center, the small Swedish town of Tibro has decided to turn the abandoned site into an arena for sustainable urban experiments. The Tibro Train Tracks project, undertaken by Stockholm-based architecture Read More...
This sustainable building is home to more than 1,000 trees
What if a building could host more plants than the entire nearby park? This is the vision of designer Koichi Takada Architects who plans to build a beautiful green Urban Forest in Brisbane, Australia. The proposed building would be covered in 1,000 trees and 20,000 plants, including 259 native Read More...
Futuristic city is designed with an eye for sustainability and resilience
If you’re curious about what green urban planning may look like in the future, Barcelona-based architecture firm Guallart Architects has recently unveiled a neighborhood design for a new city in China, called Xiong’an New Area, that’s expected to serve as a model of sustainability - powered Read More...
This company converts old hotels into affordable housing
As the tourists stay home due to the coronavirus, hotels across America are closing down. Fortunately, a company by the name of Repvblik is ensuring some of these hotels get a new lease on life. What the Los Angeles-based company does is convert empty commercial spaces into affordable housing Read More...